Hats Off to Decorations for Commencement Caps

During the past three months I have been working tirelessly to get approval for graduating students to decorate their caps for commencement. This would not only affect the senior class, but all future classes of the Mount as well. In these past three months, I have done a lot to push my motion forward in the process of potentially being approved by the Student Government Association, and subsequently the President’s Office.

Once I had the idea, I first wrote an article for the Mountain Echo on my opinion of being allowed to decorate our caps for commencement. Then, I scheduled a meeting with the Associate Provost, Dr. David McCarthy, to discuss this issue further. It was a productive and informative meeting, and the issue was taken to the daily cabinet meeting to be discussed further.

After I met with him, I then wrote up survey questions and a petition. I wrote a petition to acquire as many signatures from the senior class as possible. In just a few short days, I was able to acquire 71 signatures. I also conducted a survey that was released to all of the university’s undergraduates to learn their individual opinions on whether or not they should be allowed to decorate their caps for commencement. The results of the survey from the undergraduates yielded that a total of 65 percent, or a majority, was in favor of decorating their caps for commencement.

I have done a lot of marketing to my fellow seniors, as well as the undergraduates with the release of my survey. In addition, a week ago I spoke at the Student Government Association on my own personal opinion about being allowed to decorate our caps for commencement. It was not voted on last week because not all of the members were present. This week, however, I spoke once more at the SGA meeting and the members voted on it. The motion passed successfully and will now move to the President’s Office for further review.